By Amitabh Sharma

Any amount of knowledge is a drop in the ocean, it is said; constantly updating skill sets and educating professionals in an organization is an even more challenging task. This is where the Training officer comes in.

The primary role of a training officer, as the name suggests is to constantly develop programmes and modules to train the manpower in the company, assess and accordingly orient employees.

"Training is part of HR," says Dahlia Fuller-Philips, Training Officer, Jamaica National. "Over the years the word trainer has been replaced by learning, this is what it entails."

PRE REQUISITES
As a pre requisite it is an advantage to have an HR background, if not a degree in HR then at least some sort of formal training in this sphere, which should be 1st degree.

"A background of in a service industry and exposure to training and exposure to management training are desirable," says Philips.

TRAITS
An incumbent should be well versed in presentation skills, should have good communication and inter personal relation skills - if you are unpleasant, your colleagues will develop a dislike - you should be a team player, have the ability to deal with people of diverse background and personalities.

One should also be ready to impart knowledge and believe in the development of the people.

JOB PROFILE

The work sphere carrying of audits, assessing the key competencies of the employees; the trainer is also responsible for mapping and aligning them to the development of the company.

"The job profile entails developing specific programmes for the Internet, classrooms, and upgrades existing training material and has product knowledge," explains Philips.

The training and the orientation helps the employees understand the business, the values and the goals of the organization and how they can contribute optimally to achieve those goals.

ATTRIBUTES

"It is also a relationship building exercise," avers Philips, "need to train individual and groups."

It is the responsibility of the trainer to get the employees to understand what the organization is all about, its mission, vision and goals.

To be a trainer, an individual has to be one step ahead, which is a challenging task. " One has to read a lot, keep abreast of what is happening in the industry, read trade publications, papers," says Philips.

"In addition, one has to keep to date with technology, which is playing a key role in transforming this domain," she says.

This is a volatile field, knowledge changes rapidly, if you are not updated you will become extinct in two years.

DRIVERS AND GROWTH PROSPECTS

The demand for trainers is growing manifold as the companies realize that learning is an essential tool for getting the energies of their employees focused and work optimally to achieve their desired goals.

The key drivers for the companies to employ more training personnel is driven by increased competition, globalization and the awareness about knowledge management as a part of the driving the growth.

A fresher would join an organization as an Assistant Manager, the starting salary would be around $ 1.4 to $1.9 million per annum - the prospects are plenty; one can rise up to an executive.

amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com